TEMU - the clickbait retailer

Okay, can we talk about this... this... online seller?

I see their ads everyday, and sometimes I'm sort of intrigued by the products (an outdoor cabin for indoor cats?), and other times I'm just like 'what the hell is that thing?'

Anyone ordered their $1.92 sneakers? I feel like they're gonna be around for awhile

i saw one of their ads pop up in an app and it showed....a leaf being positioned over a hole in a pipe and then covered with some kind of silver goo to repair the hole?

that sounds about right... everything looks vaguely like something from a Terry Gilliam film

The tshirts and baby's onesies with tl;dr text seem like the stupidest things in the world. The ones I can read are very cringe.

They have a lot of ads on Duolingo and they're always offering some free trinket in exchange for signing up that looks too cheaply made for dollar general to sell.

What are the products like when you get em? Are they really that much junkier than costco equivalents?

How is it different than Wish or AliExpress?

What are the products like when you get em? Are they really that much junkier than costco equivalents?

― treeship.

costco's stuff comes from the _premium_ sweatshops, this stuff comes from the sweatshops that are run on a shoestring

Temu adverts are the only good adverts in the history of adverts

Don't think they're very ethical or environmentally friendly but my fifteen year old daughter loves buying cheap as shit clothes from Shein, which is a similar thing.

This Guardian article about them suggests that they're dodgier than even your average sweatshop-produced supplier.

I read another consumer article (which I can't find now) that talked about that $300 bar for customs/safety checks, and how it could possibly be leading to more house fires, because people are buying crappy charging cables. But I don't know if that's true.

I like it - yup! - it's mine
The prices blow my mind
Ch-ching!
I feel so rich
Ooh yeah
I feel like a billionaire!

I also really like the ads where somebody pretending to be a manager pretends to be really angry because people aren't ordering their free gewgaws because they don't believe they're really free

I have a belt I bought from them for $2 that I wear every day

somewhat unsurprisingly:

Designers Are Accusing Temu of Selling Copies of Their Work

https://time.com/6342387/temu-copy-work/

For so long I was reliably getting Temu ads for plus-sized women's clothes before every youtube video that I honestly thought this was their whole business.

cheap hats and serial killer necessities

https://i.imgur.com/79CcLOm.png

xp
Temumu.

Been getting insta ads for cymbals on Temu (along with unrelated weird junk), which I have to admit is intriguing.

https://assets.wfcdn.com/im/99505750/resize-h445%5Ecompr-r85/2398/239887618/C%26g+Home+Orthopedic+Polyester+Pet+Bed.jpg

lol we got my daughter a person size dog bed for Xmas she loves it

Gotta admit, I was a little frightened to open this thread

Why Moms Love TEMU

https://www.dwell.com/article/temu-victims-moms-super-bowl-ads-93e0418e

TEMU victims vs TEMU victims

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-06-15/temu-sells-products-linked-to-forced-labor-in-china

https://www.theonion.com/i-am-so-starving-vs-i-am-so-starving-1819594260

First there was Wish, then Shein, now this.

Too many companies like this = they're gonna tank.

I'd say more people want to go back to retail, but management + REALLY BAD BUYERS have resulted in a shit sandwich for people of limited resources.

This creepy mask is available for $13.99 on TEMU

https://img.kwcdn.com/product/fancy/6fd8e286-efd1-4b29-a2e7-97fa7fe72dc3.jpg?imageView2/2/w/800/q/70/format/webp

Realistic Male Silicone Mask Headgear for Halloween, Cosplay, Masquerade, Performance

I want one that looks like Val Kilmer so I can rob a bank in style

Apparently TEMU's founder is now the richest person in China... here's how he did it:

Hundreds of people thronged the Guangzhou, China, office of the e-commerce platform Temu in rallies this month, protesting fines and refund policies they said were destroying small merchants' profits.

Many of the protesters run small businesses on Temu, a platform that sells Chinese products and has surged in popularity in the West because of lower prices.

Yicai reported that employees were told to stop working after the protesters entered the office but that the merchants left after the police arrived. They'd sought to confront the company's top executives but couldn't secure a meeting, the outlet said.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tiktoker-discovers-croissant-lamp-temu-224827859.html

a croissant lamp made from a real croissant is a moderately cool idea which i guess is not uncommon, but maybe it's a bad idea to actually taste it to see if it's a real croissant.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tiktoker-discovers-croissant-lamp-temu-224827859.html🕸

https://img.kwcdn.com/product/open/2024-04-12/1712927467467-7a374657418b497390ca4f552f84763e-goods.jpeg

https://img.kwcdn.com/product/fancy/4f1e076f-773c-4df3-bf6a-f82c5f26f49e.jpg

https://img.kwcdn.com/product/Fancyalgo/VirtualModelMatting/884b320477e7ce731bd933ae5dcdf37b.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKTN2OiR2R8

https://img.kwcdn.com/product/fancy/c97a4fb4-8851-4e28-92ea-028c8b9ae4d3.jpg

when you order crap from Temu or eBay and it ships directly from China, how will they collect the tariff?

The shipping service does it - never dealt with USPS but FedEx and UPS charge the tariff and a ridiculous brokerage fee on top.

I don’t miss doing mail order and standing in line to fill out customs forms at the post office…

The tariff tends to work in reverse order— the shipping agent pays it to customs, the shipping agent charges the seller so the shipping agent is made whole. The seller factors the tariff cost into what they charge customers based on location.

I thought there had been some waiver for items under $800 under Biden.. like this kind of crap ordered directly online

That is the loophole that got closed recently— the de minimis exception

If you order an item from outside the US and get hit with a customs fee, it is not factored into the purchase price. You pay it to the shipping service.

It depends.

It doesn't, though. Paying a customs broker fee to the shipping service is how it works buying retail from overseas (with parcels over $800 previously, now everything).

Wired explainer with examples of how it's working now - $30 board games are getting hit with broker fees like they hit the old $800 minimum.

https://www.wired.com/story/tariffs-china-prices-fees-shein-temu/

It depends on whether there is a 3rd party involved (e.g. Amazon) and if the seller has a warehouse/shipping facility in the US …

If you’re buying from a company’s US warehouse you’re not making an overseas purchase.

“ships directly from China, how will they collect the tariff?”

Oh … I was talking about tariffs in general… oops